Amazon hiring thousands of delivery drivers for holiday season

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) wants to hire thousands of seasonal delivery drivers to supplement services provided by the U.S. Post Office, United Parcel Service Inc (UPS.N), FedEx Corp (FDX.N) and its own delivery partners, the company said on Monday.

The move comes as the online retailer is also recruiting new delivery service partners, or DSPs, to help reduce delivery costs that more than tripled to $21.7 billion between 2013 and 2017.

Amazon and its DSP owners are competing for workers in the tightest U.S. labor market in decades. UPS and FedEx combined plan to hire more than 150,000 temporary holiday workers. Along with some Amazon DSPs, they are offering bonuses for attendance, safety and customer service.

Amazon is hiring across the United States and will provide vans for the seasonal workers, a company spokeswoman said.

Advertisements on the job listing site Indeed.com offered pay roughly in line with market rates of $16.25 per hour in El Monte, California, about 20 miles east of Los Angeles; $15.50 per hour in Gary, Indiana; and $18.25 in the Long Island hamlet of Bethpage, New York.

Drivers will work four, 10-hour shifts per week, according to the job listings.

Satish Jindel, president of ShipMatrix, which sells technology that tracks and manages deliveries, expects Amazon to send 8.5 million to 9 million packages per day during the peak season that runs from the end of November through Christmas.

He said the final result could be on the high end of that forecast because Amazon also said on Monday it would temporarily waive a $25 minimum purchase requirement to qualify for free holiday shipping.

That promotion, which promises to intensify competition with rivals such as Walmart Inc (WMT.N), could help Amazon reduce shipping costs since it does not come with a guarantee for pricey one- or two-day delivery, Jindel said.